The primary interest of our laboratory is a study of the histopathology of children's temporal bones. This specialized study of the histologic alterations in disease peculiar to the pediatric age group makes this laboratory unique amongst temporal bone laboratories in this country. The basic objective of our research is to continue our descriptive histopathologic studies with the hopes of broadening our fundamental understanding of congenital anomalies, developmental bone defects, chromosomal abnormalities, serous otitis media and viral labyrinthitis which are the major causes of deafness in children. The founding of a program at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh for the audiometric evaluation of patients in certain "high risk" categories will supply valuable hearing data to correlate with our histologic findings. A secondary objective is the utilization of this material in teaching. This has been facilitated by the creation of an illustrated indexing system which is used by residents. Frequent seminars in temporal bone histopathology are held in our lab. We have also contributed important specimens to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. We expect that as a better understanding of the structural and functional changes produced by these conditions emerges from our studies that techniques for the prediction of deafness in children will be suggested.